This article was first published in the Mar/April 2024 issue of IQ, the exclusive magazine for Mensa members. Find out more about becoming a Mensa member here.

Springtime is the perfect time for a woodland walk – just ask Japan’s health service

As spring arrives, it’s natural to spend more time outside, and maybe venture out for a few walks. After all, what better springtime sensation than walking through a woodland as new foliage breaks through, and the beautiful carpets of snowdrops are replaced by bluebells.

But what most of us in Britain and Ireland see simply as a walk in the woods is something regarded with much greater reverence in Japan where it’s known as shinrin-yoku (forest bathing). The idea is to walk slowly through a forest, observing everything you see in detail and slowly breathing in the woodland scents, while listening to the birds, the wind and the rustling of leaves. It’s something that many people around the world do without thinking much about it, but in Japan it’s an activity that’s consciously embraced because of the health benefits.

Although shinrin-yoku has ancient origins, the phrase was originally championed by the Japanese Government in the early 1980s, promoting it as a way for citizens to improve their health and alleviate workplace stress.

That endorsement led to extensive research into the health benefits of forest bathing, which has been shown to reduce high blood pressure and anxiety (source: Global Wellness Institute/National Taiwan University) and even boost anti-cancer properties (source: Global Wellness Institute/Nippon Medical School). The mild oxygen boost from the trees is also said to bring a feel-good factor. As a result of all this, Japan now has several specially designated shinrin-yoku sites, with forest bathing courses often prescribed by doctors.

Shinrin-yoku’s popularity is also growing in the West. The Duchess of Cambridge is a fan (it inspired her 2019 garden at the Chelsea Flower Show), and a UK body called the Forest Bathing Institute (founded in 2016) is lobbying for the NHS to embrace shinrin-yoku in the same way as its Japanese counterparts.

Our ancestors used to go forest bathing frequently, they just didn’t call it that. But with many of us now spending so much time in unnatural indoor environments, maybe our bodies are quietly craving the shinrin-yoku experience…

Eight tips for forest bathers

If you want to turn your springtime woodland walk into a conscious session of shinrin-yoku, here are eight tips – and you can do this alone, with a partner, or as part of a group.

1. Turn your phone off.
2. As you enter the woods, pause and relax yourself by taking deep breaths.
3. Walk slowly through the forest, using all five of your senses.
4. Look out for other living creatures.
5. Observe what the Japanese call komorebi – the changing shape and radiance of the sunlight through the leaves of the trees.
6. Feel the rhythm of your heartbeat and your footsteps.
7. Sit for 20 minutes.
8. When your session is over, have a drink or a snack and take your time to return to your normal pace of life.